When Forever I Shall Be Eclipsed
by Tulip-Jin
Summary: A story of Yami's past. His childhood, life as he was growing up, and all the really NASTY stuff that made him into the dark person we know today. (Rating for lotsa violence and one or two bad words) DONE! COMPLETED! FINISHED! ETC!
1. Shades of Grey

Tulip-Jin: Oh boy, another fic by me is finally going up!  
  
Yami Tulip-Jin: About time. Which one of your stupid ideas is going up this time, Aibou?  
  
TJ: _ NONE OF MY IDEAS ARE STUPID!  
  
Yami TJ: Oh yeah? What about the time you decided to ride down a giant hill in a plastic wagon.  
  
TJ:...Hey, I only crashed and broke my arm because YOU made the signal for 'You're going too far to the left' the same as 'A CAR'S COMING BEHIND YOU - PULL OVER'!  
  
Yami TJ: Well it's not my fault you're too stupid to tell the diffence!  
  
TJ: Why you little -  
  
*huge dustcloud fight commences*  
  
Chibi Red Eyes Black Dragon: *sigh* Rawwwwwr rawr rawr rawr raawwr, rawr! Rawr rawr, rawwwwwwr, rawr raawwwr! Rawr! (You'd think they'd have gotten more mature by now, but noooo. That just leaves me, the sane one, to welcome you all to this new fic! Enjoy!)  
  
Disclaimer: Yugioh owned by nobody here!  
  
Claimer: Idea is mine! (Yami TJ: No, it's MINE! TJ: INFIDEL! NOW YOU MUST DIE! *more fighting ensues*)  
  
(Note: entire fic is in Yami POV! No guarantees on accuracy with ANYTHING!)  
  
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I'm not sure when I first realized I was different from everyone else. It was obvious from the beginning that there was something about me that made me special. However, it wasn't a very good kind of special.  
  
Looking back, I know now that if I had been born to low-level parents, I would have been sold into the slave trade in an eye blink. But I wasn't the son of just anybody, I was the youngest son of the Pharaoh of Egypt.  
  
Which meant instead of being treated like a slave I was treated like camel dung. Out of the dozens of children of the Pharaoh, my half-brothers and half-sisters really had only one thing they liked to do in common - torture me.  
  
At one point, I asked one of my sisters why she and our other sisters were so cruel to me. It was a real shock when she answered almost civilly.  
  
"Because you're a freak. We're just having fun until Father realizes it and kicks you into the desert!"  
  
Then she called me a word that I don't feel like repeating.  
  
I never asked my brothers, firstly because going near them was a danger to my health but secondly because I knew they just did it because they wanted to do it. Of course, they did restrain themselves when adults were present but otherwise it was every man for themselves.  
  
Consequently I tried to spend as much time as possible around adults. I knew that with an adult I would be protected.  
  
…Well, with _most_ adults…some were worse then Akaton and Numari combined, but that's another story entirely…  
  
In the end, I had only managed to find just a few decent human beings.  
  
Jono and Hotra, two slaves that were clearly best friends, always together no matter how far apart their assigned duties located them.  
  
Septhroith, or Seth for casual use - at least at first but after a while I wasn't as sure anymore - the prized disciple of the High Priest Henshin.  
  
Numari's maid Anza, who loved watching the court dancers even if it meant getting whipped - she always wanted to dance as they did…  
  
Then there was Master, or Old Master as he was nicknamed, a wizened old magical master and my first instructor. He vanished during the height of the eight flood after my birth, and was never seen again…  
  
One other, one only known to me, was a stranger that I only saw once and had met when I was very small. He said he was a guard but I doubted it. For starters, none of the guards paid any attention to me but he was walking by and spotted me and asked instantly if I was alright.  
  
This was after the incident where Zeporith and Haskal teamed up with my sister Darna and three large burning candles to 'try and tan me'. I always had very pale skin…  
  
Of course, I was startled by what appeared to be some expression of the enigmatic trait known as kindness. That and the fact that he spotted me when I was crouched in the tiny space between a pillar and the wall.  
  
We basically stared at each other for a while before we heard my siblings heading towards us in order to finish what they had started. The 'guard' glanced at the voices, back to me, then stood in front of the space and stood at attention as the three of them walked up.  
  
"I'm sure that little weakling headed this way," Zeporith was growling before they noticed the 'guard'.  
  
"Have you seen our brother Yamakali?" Haskal demanded.  
  
"What does he look like?" The 'guard' asked cautiously.  
  
Darna snorted.  
  
"Incompetent new guards. He's pretty obvious, he looks like a corpse that stuck his head into a vat of dye."  
  
I was certain I was about to be exposed but instead the 'guard' said, "I am sorry, but I have not."  
  
"He's not passed this way?" Zeporith asked, just to make sure.  
  
"No, no one has," the 'guard' reported.  
  
My half-brothers and half-sister moved to the other side of the corridor to confer but I still heard them.  
  
"Do you think he snuck past the guard, I mean he _is_ pretty short."  
  
"Not a chance - the artifact storerooms are the only thing at the end of this corridor and only the priests can go inside without setting off the trap spells."  
  
"Maybe he's trying to hide with the scholars again," Haskal snickered as they headed to the scroll rooms.  
  
Once they were gone, the strange man - who I most certainly did not think was a guard anymore - turned to face me.  
  
"You can come out, they're gone now," he said softly, and I reluctantly left my hiding place.  
  
I finally got a good look at him - he had the most tanned skin I had ever seen, and even though my skin does have some color to it his really made mine as pale as a corpse's. I couldn't see his face under the helmet, and it didn't matter anyway.  
  
I had greater concerns at the time - my arm was still throbbing unpleasantly and the pain was making me feel dizzy…  
  
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Chibi Red Eyes: Rawr, rawr rawr? Rawr rawr raawwwwwwwr! (So, what do you all think of this so far? Reviews are always appreciated!  
  
Off-screen: *sounds of cursing, firearms going off, and missiles exploded can be heard*  
  
Chibi Red Eyes: Rawr, rawr rawr raawr. Rawwwrr... (Don't worry, those two will stop fighting sooner or later. I hope...) 


	2. Fading Gaze

*In distance, sounds of squabbling over gifts can be heard*  
  
Chibi Red Eyes Black Dragon: Rawr rawr rawwwwwrrrr, rawr rawr rraawwrr rawr rawr! Rawr rawr rawwwwwr! (Sorry for the delay, but those other two are still fighting over some of their Xmas gifts! So, I'll just get this chapter started without them!)  
  
Disclaimer: See last chapter, stupid  
  
Claimer: What she said  
  
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My next recollection was waking up on a bench inside a room I'd never been in before. The furnishings were modest at best, but it was clean enough. Sitting up, I discovered someone had tended to the burns on my arm.  
  
It was an interesting change, to receive medical attention for the results of my sibling's 'games'.  
  
"I see you're awake now, your highness."  
  
I hadn't noticed the strange person, who was standing right in front of me by that point, but his genuine concern was really beginning to confuse me.  
  
  
  
Adults, when they paid any attention to you at all, only did it because you were misbehaving or if they wanted something from you.  
  
"You're not a guard," I said.  
  
"Good morning to you too," he said sarcastically. "I can feel the gratitude for saving your hide just pouring out into the world."  
  
Cursing whatever made my face darken, I mumbled what I meant to be a 'thank you'.  
  
"I still want to know who you are. You don't work at the palace at all, do you?" I said next.  
  
"Well, maybe we _should_ start off with names. You're the infamous Yamakali, aren't you?" He said, smirking. "Even outside the palace walls, there are all sorts of rumors about your unusual … lineage."  
  
I gave him my fiercest glare.  
  
"My _mother_ is _not_ the subject here," I snarled back.  
  
For those of you unaware, I will take this time to explain things. I am the youngest. I also have no full siblings whatsoever. Everyone else was born around the same time, and all of them were sired by the Pharaoh - of course - and mothered by one of his wives. Some of them were arranged wives from neighboring nations, some were exceptionally beautiful women taken from the towns around the palace, some were slaves imported from anyone-knows-where. All the children that resulted from Father's mistresses were either killed or adopted after Father married their mothers.  
  
Out of all of these pairings, the results were boys that were big and strapping, and girls that were beautiful and intelligent. And not a single one had any aptitude for any magic whatsoever. Magic was not Father's strongest point either, but he was supposed to pass the family magic to the next Pharaoh. There was a major sensation, from what I heard, as everyone offered women from their grandmothers to their newborn daughters as possible wives that would bring forth magically strong children.  
  
For a while, it looked like the only possible thing was for the Pharaoh to find some baby with potential, kill the real father, and marry the mother, afterwards claiming the child as his descendent. Then, on a hunting expedition - Father always loved to go hunt and kill things - he came across what appeared to be a simple woman who lived alone in a desert oasis. According to rumor, her skin was the blackness of ebony, she had black hair, and black eyes.  
  
She must have either been very beautiful or a good talker, because Father dragged her back home and married her the same day. Also according to rumor, she agreed to the hasty wedding if she could be his most important wife, the Queen. They say she said something about 'Saving or Destroying Destiny Itself'. I have mixed feelings about it, personally.  
  
In any case, none of the other women took too kindly to this desert lady being named Queen. They did manage to be remotely civil when they found out about her being pregnant. 'It'll be a weakling girl,' they said. 'Pharaoh will get tired of her then. Can't expect a boy from a desert tramp, they only make more of themselves.'  
  
I often wish they'd been right.  
  
But they weren't. After the usual amount of time, she gave birth to a healthy boy - me. Although they weren't so certain I was healthy at first. According to the scrolls Seth found for me, I didn't make a sound. Everyone else came into the world screaming bloody murder but I just looked around quiet and polite as you want. That and I was white as a sheet of linen with red eyes. The hair was probably the final straw - black, red, and gold, all in high crowning spikes, even then - the surest guarantee I was the One. Once the other wives got wind of that, they went on the warpath. The logic was that since Father was off fighting a war at the time, they would kill me and my mother both, bury us, and claim we both died naturally.  
  
I don't even remember what happened, but according to the rumors, Mother turned into a black vulture and flew into the desert, or something strange like that. And the heir to the High Priesthood, Seth, who was barely two years old then, and being very magically inclined himself, took me into his room where the women never found me. Father was greeted by a gifted two year old baby priest that was dragging his last son in a basket when he came home slightly earlier then expected.  
  
Father, although he can be stubborn and very thick-headed - any one of his advisors will agree with me - listened to Seth's story (He never gets tired of boasting about his ability to speak at an man's level at age two, Seth really can be too smart for his own good), and ordered all his other wives executed. Mother vanished - her house was gone when Father went to look for her, like it had never existed in the first place - and he proclaimed I was some sort of 'Divine Gift', sent by Lord Rah to insure the survival of the royal magical bloodline.  
  
All my older half siblings were instantly jealous, and so far Father hasn't found out how they're trying to basically kill me while pretending it was during some kind of nice children's game. Honestly, what children's game involves crocodile teeth, lit torches, and a brick attached to a rope? I have Naparithnah to thank for my knowledge about the effects of such things used in concert. 


	3. Last Light

Sign: Sorry for delay. Couldn't be helped. Here's the next chappy! (Disclaimer: see other chapters)  
  
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Anyway, back the stranger who was not a guard. He took a hint and didn't say anything about my Mother.  
  
"Well, if I need a name so badly in your eyes," he said, "I'll just steal part of yours. I'll be Akal. You'll be Yami from now on."  
  
I really had no other choice then to call him Akal from that point. It was still _my_ name, but he insisted I was Yami now. I decided to let it slide.  
  
"What are you doing in the palace if you don't work here, Akal," I asked.  
  
"I don't think I'm going to tell you. Besides, my friend Bekareh would never let me hear the end of it if he knew I was consorting with someone like you," he said.  
  
"Fine, I don't care," I said, "I'll just have you executed for trespassing. I only need to send a real guard after you and they'll finish you right off."  
  
Akal frowned. I didn't care. I was still angry about the candle thing, and he was right there to be vented on.  
  
"Little Pharaoh, more of a bastard then your big daddy is, aren't you?" he said.  
  
I'd been called worse. So had Father.  
  
"Well, midget Pharaoh," he said sarcastically, "Since I'm not going to be around here much longer, you might as well know. I suppose you might even have some sympathy. I'm here for what's mine."  
  
"And? What in the Nile could be yours that's around here?" I asked.  
  
I was genuinely curious, actually. My 'sixth sense', as Seth said it was called, was screaming that this person in front of me had some powers of his own.  
  
"It's inside your family vaults, along with several other pieces that don't belong to me," he said. "I don't care about the rest, but I'm taking what's mine. It's only almost dawn now - and so, Midget Pharaoh Yami, I won't be seeing you."  
  
Akal left then. I spotted some blindingly bright golden hair trailing from under his guard's helmet as he walked away.  
  
I never saw him after that. But there was a large commotion by the treasure vaults later that morning. Someone found the dead body of some guard by it. There was only one wound on him, some knife had stabbed him right through the heart.  
  
And his whole body was withered and crumbling into dust already…the thing gave me a very disturbing feeling, and Seth was a bit skittish for a while afterwards too… 


	4. Dusk

Yami Tulip-Jin: People actually _like_ one of your stories, Aibou. I can hardly believe it.  
  
Tulip-Jin: ^_^  
  
Yami TJ: It's true after all - people in America WILL watch anything, no matter how much it stinks.  
  
TJ: O_O  
  
Chibi Red Eyes Black Dragon: Rawrr... (Uh-oh...)  
  
TJ: *wallops Yami TJ into the stratosphere with the Millennium Mace*  
  
Chibi Red Eyes: *sighs* Rawr rawr rawwwwr... (They're at it again...)  
  
TJ: I feel _much_ better now. On with the fic!  
  
Disclaimer: Are you an idiot or something that needs this more than once?  
  
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Of course, I did survive childhood. Plenty of my siblings didn't, including Darna, Zeporith, and Haskal, but that was some plague thing. I didn't even get sick. Father did. He wasn't considered quite right in the head after that. It was around then that I was studying magic with my most intent.  
  
Old Master had vanished two years back; Septhroith - he and I had grown very distant, although I still considered him a friend - had tutored me for the last year, but now Henshin was doing some high intensity stuff and they hadn't come back from the Great Temple for months. So I was left to teach myself.  
  
Magic, at first, was just something to relieve the monotony of my existence. Now that we were older, my siblings weren't interested in killing me off anymore. My sisters were trying to become proper women so they could get married as soon as possible, and my brothers wanted to fight wars and hunt - anything so long as they could kill something.  
  
I, on the other hand, had neither the interest nor the build required to seek such pursuits. So one day Old Master came up to me and asked if I wanted to study magic. I suppose what got me agreeing was that he _wanted_ to know if I wanted to learn it - everyone that knew about my so-called 'Chosen' status would keep preaching about my 'destiny' and the magic I was going to pass along.  
  
When given a choice, I choose magic only because it beat staring into space all day.  
  
But now I was done with basic magic. I could do a few small spells already - if you've ever heard of the Marketplace Inferno, I can assure you that was just a minor illumination spell that got out of hand.  
  
I mean it! It wasn't supposed to actually set things _alight_! Septhroith laughed so hard that his priest's hat fell off when I tried to explain my side of it…the jerk.  
  
Anyway, I was finished with the basics and was poking around the library for something else to do when I came across something unusual. Three slaves were in there, supposedly cleaning, but it looked more like they were fighting. They didn't see me, so I was able to watch with some amusement.  
  
One of them I recognized - Anza. Numari had also died from the plague, despite her status as the eldest daughter, and Anza was a normal slave now. She got to spend more time watching the palace dancers then she'd ever had as a maid, which we both felt was an ironic twist of fate.  
  
I knew that if I was ever given the chance I would have her assigned as a dancer first thing. I never told her that, though - I knew she'd think it was silly. The other two, one with blond hair and one with brown hair, were a pair I had seen before but their names escaped me at the moment. All three of them were arguing about something.  
  
"You're not supposed to touch the scrolls Jono! You'll get whipped for it!"  
  
"Aw, c'mon Anza, I just wanna see what's so important about these things…"  
  
"I wouldn't look if I were you, Jono…besides, since when can you read?"  
  
"You'd better take that back Hotra! I can read better then you do!"  
  
"Will the two of you just quit it? You're going to get us all in trouble! Put them back before someone sees us!"  
  
I couldn't resist - I had to do it.  
  
"It's a little late for that, I think," I said.  
  
All three of them whirled around, looked at me long enough to register 'Very Important Person', and threw themselves at my feet begging not to be punished.  
  
Glad there was no one else to see the rather amusing display, I tapped Anza on the shoulder, and when she finally glanced up I raised an eyebrow in curiosity.  
  
"Oh! Yamakali! I didn't realize it was you! Guys, its okay, you can get up!"  
  
Jono and Hotra looked at me warily as they slowly got up. They seemed suspicious, which they had a right to be of course. Normally, there was only one way for Anza to know someone with my level of status.  
  
Of course we were both too young for that and frankly it was absurd, but that was the way things were. Another thing I would work on if given the chance.  
  
"Sorry about the noise, these two decided to investigate scrolls when they were supposed to be working."  
  
Jono instantly forgot his suspicions as he began protesting.  
  
"Hey, we swept and dusted already, and what's wrong with being curious, huh?"  
  
"He's got a point," I said.  
  
Jono grinned. "See? Even _he_ agrees with me!"  
  
"Looks like miracles really do happen," Hotra said, and that started the pair on each other again until I coughed politely, reminding them I was still there.  
  
"So, Anza - who's yer little nobleman friend? He's, eh, kinda young for ya, ain't he?"  
  
Even though the accusation was to be expected, I still turned bright red. Anza, on the other hand, spazzed out.  
  
"How DARE you say such a thing, Jono! We're just FRIENDS, that's all! And if you'd bother to LISTEN when people spoke then you'd already know who he is anyway!"  
  
Hotra and Jono laughed nervously as they tried to fend off an enraged Anza. I finally stepped in to save them. It was then Hotra figured things out.  
  
"Hey, wait a second…isn't Yamakali the name of a Prince? That one with the creepy nickname?"  
  
I frowned. Being known to everyone as 'Demon-spawn' wasn't something I was particularly proud of.  
  
"Yes, that would be me, and I can assure you any and all rumors you've heard are completely false."  
  
Hotra put up his hands defensively. "No way, I would never have believed them anyway, rumors are stupid! Eh heh heh…"  
  
He looked like he knew he was about to get his head ripped off, and as much as I hated to disappoint I knew Anza would do the same to me if I tried. Besides, I was beginning to like these two anyway. I decided to change the subject.  
  
"So…what was it that was so interesting over here anyway?"  
  
They took a second to track on what I was talking about.  
  
"Oh, some really old scrolls over here. I don't know how these two could have opened them, but they were in these silver boxes," Anza said as she pointed them out to me.  
  
"Don't look at me! I think the lock was broken or something! It just opened up when I barely even touched it," Jono protested.  
  
I took a look at the box in question and blanched.  
  
"This case is sealed by magic - there's no lock to break - and it's only supposed to open for the priests!"  
  
"Well…does that mean I'm really a priest?" Jono looked very pleased with himself.  
  
"The spells are rather old…I suppose this one must have worn off by now…"  
  
Hotra and Anza jumped as Jono fell on his head.  
  
"So much for the reign of High Priest Jono," Hotra laughed.  
  
"One of these days, Hotra…"  
  
Anza and I were laughing as well, until she stopped.  
  
"What's up Anza?"  
  
"I think someone's coming…and we left the scrolls in a total mess! If the scholars see this we're going to get in huge trouble!"  
  
I'm not sure what prompted me to open my mouth just then, but I felt I had to do something.  
  
"Hold on, I have an idea. You three go out the back way. I'll cover for you."  
  
"Really? Thanks Yamakali, you're the best!"  
  
They ran out the back and I managed to restore a slight semblance of order just as one of the more important scholars, Lakasul, walked up.  
  
"My Prince?"  
  
He looked at the disarrayed shelves with scorn - he was a stickler for organization - and said, "You seem to be putting some…_enthusiasm_…into your studies, my Prince."  
  
"Yes, well…I did lose track of time…I will straighten these up right away, Master Scholar," I said, making sure my words came across respectful.  
  
Lakasul seemed mollified and left. I heaved a sigh of relief afterwards - thank Nut he hadn't seen the open silver case.  
  
There were only a few scrolls out of place, either lying open or shelved out of order, and it didn't take me very long to fix that. There was only one left, an old map, and it went into the silver case. As I was putting it back in, one of the others in the case caught my eye. Since there was no one watching I pulled it out and looked at the first part of it.  
  
"A theory of magical influence in the Dark World…"  
  
I really don't know what made me do it. I rolled up the scroll and hid it under my robes, closing the top of the silver case and heading for my chambers. Once I had privacy - rumors or no rumors, nobody entered without permission - I looked over the entire scroll more carefully. It was partly a history, partly speculation. I knew I wasn't supposed to be looking at it at all, but still, I read it.  
  
And from there I first learned of the dark and dangerous place known as the Shadow Realm… 


	5. Twilight

Tulip-Jin: Here's the next update. And frankly, I don't even _care_ if want to just read my fic and then not review it. I'm totally fine with it! Couldn't be happier!  
  
Chibi Red Eyes Black Dragon: Rawr? Rawr rawr rawwwr? (TJ? Where's your Yami?)  
  
TJ: Hiding at the bottom of the chapter to beat the living hoo-hah out of the people that don't review after they read. Why do you ask?  
  
Chibi Red Eyes: Rawr rawwwr. (No reason.)  
  
Disclaimer: Last chapter, and the one before that, and the one before that, and the other ones before those, will answer all your questions on this subject  
  
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After that, my life took its darker turn. Although no one, especially myself, would have considered it that. For me, it was the best my life had ever gotten.  
  
For starters, Jono and Hotra seemed to have decided I was their new best friend, and started pestering me about all sorts of things. They'd never seen the Court, or much else of anything.  
  
So I ended up making a practice of sneaking them in to see it, hopefully without getting caught. That, and finally, Father was taking a more active interest in his son's lives, and more or less forced us all on mass hunting trips.  
  
Curiously enough, when we were assigned slave-bodyguards, Jono and Hotra were mine. They managed to act respectful around Father and the 'real' guards but they almost started a blood feud with my half-brothers.  
  
The mass trips always lasted a few days and every evening my brothers thought it was a great sport to set their slaves fighting and bet on it. Most of the slaves didn't put much effort into it, since getting injured meant getting beaten for slowness no matter what the reason, but Jono and Hotra practically begged me to let them fight.  
  
We were all in late childhood by this point, and I'll be first to admit it, they were starting to show some real potential as soldiers. The Head of the Guard was always watching the fights, although you could never prove it, scooping out which slaves it would be worthwhile to free and train.  
  
My brothers took this as a mark of personal achievement, to have a slave that was picked, so they began deliberately setting their strongest slaves against each other's weakest. It was perhaps the fourth hunting trip, on the first night, when I was finally forced to let Hotra and Jono fight.  
  
Well, really I should be more specific - Jono and Hotra never actually gave me that much of a choice.  
  
There had been a few fights already, and a brother that was more elder then most, Tekano, came up to me.  
  
"Hey, freak! Hey Demon-spawn!" He said.  
  
To me, he was loud enough to be heard back at the palace. It was certainly loud enough to draw everyone's attention. Except for Father's, of course.  
  
"What is it Tekano," I said. I wasn't in the mood for him right now.  
  
"I've noticed something - you never have your slaves fight. I guess they must be just weak as you are!"  
  
Now, normally I would ignore something like that - it's not like it matters what other people think about me - but the strange phenomenon of friendship wouldn't let me stand by and see Jono and Hotra get bad-mouthed.  
  
"You've only noticed it now, brother? Honestly, I would have thought you would have noticed faster then that. Apparently, it was an overestimation on my part," I said.  
  
Sure, maybe it wasn't a great insult, but Tekano managed to figure out that I was calling him an idiot. There was a reason I never tried talking back before - Tekano especially was twice my size and weight, and he wasn't the most understanding of people. In front of everyone, he reached out, grabbed my arm, and twisted it into an very unnatural position.  
  
Stupid me, I'd forgotten Tekano was a wrestler. It felt like he was going to rip my arm clear off, and for all I knew he was trying to. I must have cried out, because he started laughing at me while I vainly tried to free my arm before he broke it.  
  
This was apparently too much for Jono and Hotra watch, since the next thing I knew my arm was free, Tekano was on the ground, and Jono and Hotra were in between us, fists at the ready.  
  
"Hey, I don't care if you're Grand Emperor of the Nile, don't you touch him! Ya got that?" Jono yelled as they stood in the way.  
  
Tekano got up, snarling a little. Out of all of us, he got away with not having slaves assigned to protect him because he was such a strong fighter. During the fights, he fought for himself. And he always won.  
  
"So, the weakling's little slaves have to save him! That's funny!" Tekano laughed. "I'll take a little two-on-one right now, let's go!"  
  
"You'd better watch your mouth, jerk," Hotra growled.  
  
I wanted to stop them but it was a little obvious that nobody was going to listen to me. As the others crowded around to watch, I was kicked out of the way. Everyone was rooting loudly for Tekano, and betted on him as best as they could. It was hard when no one was willing to bet on the other side.  
  
Holding my throbbing arm very gingerly - Tekano's grip had been so hard his fingerprints were still imprinted on my wrist - I climbed on top of a empty chariot to watch.  
  
Tekano's method was to fight hard and fast, but unlike previous fights where he'd been outnumbered, he was facing a pair that both wanted to fight and was used to fighting as a team. Still, it even surprised me when Tekano was dropped unconscious on the dirt with a nose gushing blood - most likely broken - while Hotra and Jono seemed ready for more.  
  
A riot was starting when the guards finally came to find out the problem. Apparently, we'd been too noisy for Father to eat dinner comfortably. In the confusion, Jono and Hotra rejoined me at our little corner of the camp. Hotra's left eye was swollen shut and Jono was limping.  
  
"Well, you both look exceptionally pleased with yourselves," I commented.  
  
"Yeah, we totally knocked the crown offa him!" Jono said.  
  
"See, you should have let us fight before Yamakali, we were fine," Hotra said.  
  
"Fine? You _bit_ a member of the Royal Family! I'll be very surprised if he doesn't try to get you executed for it," I said.  
  
"No way, and besides, when everyone starting complaining about it, that Hiskoto-whats-his-name guy said it was 'the risk fighters had to take'," Jono protested.  
  
"Well then, I suppose all we have worry about is getting 'accidentally' killed by a hunter tomorrow," I said, a bit more sarcastically then intended.  
  
Internally, I was surprised that Hiskotonamekt had defended the fight. Our Head of the Guard must have taken a liking to them, but then again he was open-minded, a very odd trait nowadays.  
  
Afterwards, it wasn't a matter of Jono and Hotra wanting to fight. Everyone else wanted their slaves to fight them but _they_ refused fights with anyone 'That wasn't gonna put their spines into it'.  
  
After three more hunting trips of this, Father left for yet another war and Hiskotonamekt sent both of them off for training. Seth still wasn't back yet, Anza was working in the kitchens now, and that meant I had more time to look over the old scrolls.  
  
Day by day, my magical abilities increased. I could even open the silver case with the strongest locking spell on it now, without any difficulty whatsoever. It was there I found the list - a list of magical items stored in the great vaults, the ones literally coated with trap spells.  
  
Sometimes even priests were setting them off now, meaning no one had been able to go into the vaults for a while. Tired of just reading about them, I decided to investigate the vaults personally.  
  
It was a moonless night when I made my way to the storerooms, past the only guard on duty in the entire area, down a winding series of corridors and up to the great ceremonial doors.  
  
That was the first trap.  
  
They could only be opened when it involved some radically important religious ceremony - the rest of the time they pretty much killed whatever touched them.  
  
I took the concealed side door, and after the mandatory crouching, sliding, and jumping to get past the rest of the trap spells - and for the first time in my life being happy that I was so short - I entered the vaults.  
  
They were a series of underground rooms, the walls covered with golden hieroglyphics that were barrier spells against those trying to dig their way in, and there were piles of gold devices and other strange wonders.  
  
While a few pieces were clearly high-quality pieces of Egyptian craftsmanship, some of the others had a definite Greek workmanship to it. Some more others appeared to be southern in origin, but most of it all wasn't like anything I had ever seen before. The air was quietly humming with all the powerful magic as I looked around.  
  
The torches lit themselves as I drew near, and when I had gone past they went out again. It was in the last storeroom I found the greatest treasures of all.  
  
There were several of them - small little things that otherwise weren't that unusual amidst the gold in the room.  
  
One was a small staff, almost a wand, topped off with a little ball and side protrusions.  
  
One was just a ball, the size of a human eye.  
  
There was a necklace also.  
  
Nothing too odd, and nothing to warrant personal pillars - except for the disturbing auras they gave off, and that each one bore a Sennen Eye.  
  
Even I knew that the Sennen Eye was a symbol of great power.  
  
I found myself drawn to the last pillar. It actually held what might have been the most peculiar item of the lot - a box made out of gold. It wasn't decorated or marked in any way, save the Sennen Eye.  
  
Curious, I took off the lid. Inside were strange pieces of gold. I took two of them out and looked at them more closely. The shapes didn't make much sense, until I tried putting them together.  
  
After a little maneuvering, they joined together with a small 'click'.  
  
"A puzzle?" I whispered - talking seemed forbidden in this place - and the pieces seemed to glow in my hands.  
  
Quickly, I put them back in the box and picked it up. Slipping it out of sight under my robes, I left the vaults and managed to make it back without being detected.  
  
**********************************************************  
  
*Innocent pile of rocks sits next to Review Button*  
  
*Evil cackle of laughter comes from rocks* 


	6. Shadows in the Dark

*Alone in the authoress notes, a wooden sign has been erected*  
  
Sign: Hi, it's me the Chibi Red Eyes Black Dragon! (Bet you didn't know I could write, huh?) Tulip-Jin and her Yami are off in a snit because of our total lack of feedback on this fic. In fact, if they found this sign I made, Yami Tulip-Jin would probably torch it...but in any case, here is the next chapter of this fic. Review it please thank-you!  
  
Smaller sign below first sign: Yugioh is owned by Japanese people. whereas this idea and all the made-up characters are property of TJ Inc. (All rights reserved).  
  
**************************************************************************************************  
  
For weeks afterwards, I became obsessed with that strange golden puzzle. Everyone considered me a bit eccentric already, so no one thought much of it, but I spent all my waking hours trying to fit the pieces together.  
  
A pyramidal shape was forming, much like the pyramids that were being designed as the latest tombs. I even heard Father wanted to build himself a pyramid tomb bigger then the palace at one point, but then he forgot about it and no one felt like reminding him.  
  
Besides, where were we supposed to find that much stone and all those slaves to build it with?  
  
Anyway, it was weeks and weeks later - another moonless night, in fact - before I finished it. The last piece I put in was the one with the Sennen Eye on it, just like the one on the box.  
  
What happened next, I'm not 100% sure about, but I vaguely remembered something like a burning pain or blinding light. Whether either of them actually happened, I'll never know.  
  
Anyway, _after_ the blackout I remember things just fine.  
  
I suddenly found myself in some vast, empty space. It was dark and foreboding.  
  
"What is this place," I asked. It was a bit stupid, but I was answered.  
  
"This place is the Shadow Realm," a voice hissed.  
  
It was behind me, and I turned to find myself face to face with a man dressed in gold. His clothes seemed literally woven from gold. His hair was black, and so were his eyes. He was deathly pale, such that I looked a healthy brown in comparison. He had a unsavory aura about him, but curiosity drove me to speak further.  
  
"The Shadow Realm? I've heard about it, but I never expected it to be this…" I trailed off as I tried to figure out what.  
  
"Dark? Empty? I'd imagine that's what you were thinking, Lord Yamakali," the man said. He was smirking in an unsettling way.  
  
"How do you know my name?" I demanded.  
  
"Why, you interest me, of course. You have interested me for a long time, and at last we meet." He spoke condescendingly, like anyone in their right mind would have known the answer.  
  
"In that case, who are you?" I asked.  
  
"You may call me Takai. Come, Lord Yamakali, let us play a game."  
  
'Takai' watched me expectantly. I was getting a very, very bad feeling about him, but then there was the game. My greatest weakness has been that I simply cannot turn down a game. It earned me a lot of pain and misery when my siblings took advantage of it.  
  
"What sort of game?" I asked.  
  
"Nothing too strenuous. You may even have heard of it. This way," he said and walked deeper into the darkness. I followed. 


	7. Moonrise

Tulip-Jin: People read my fic, people read my fic, YAHOOOOOOO!  
  
Yami Tulip-Jin: About dang time, too. But when did the last chapter get posted?  
  
Chibi Red Eyes Black Dragon: Rawwwwr raaaawr, rawr rawr rawr rawr... (I don't know either, isn't that strange...)  
  
Yami TJ: (eyes Chibi Red Eyes suspiciously)  
  
Chibi Red Eyes: (whistles innocently)  
  
TJ: (cheering and jumping around) I AM SO GREAT! I AM SO GREAT! I AM SO GREAT!  
  
Yami TJ and Chibi Red Eyes: (sigh)  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh. But this piece of cheese is all mine. ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY CHEESE!

* * *

The game was a strategy game, black and white wooden pieces over a black and white colored board. I'd seen someone playing it before.  
  
"Now, this is a little different then most games you've played before. If you refuse to play, or if you lose, your soul will be sucked into the Shadow Realm for all eternity."  
  
That took me by surprise. "I don't even get a choice?"  
  
"How would we have any fun if you decided to back down? If, by some freakish twist, I lose instead, the same fate awaits me. That's why they call this a Shadow Game, you know. But frankly, I doubt you'll defeat me in your very first Shadow Game."  
  
I decided then I didn't like Takai, but I had no choice. I agreed and he went first.  
  
He was really good, always planning all his moves well in advance. It took every strategy I knew just to keep from losing right away. He just attacked harder every time I evaded. I was going to be beaten, and worse - I knew nothing I did to protect myself would work.  
  
"Well, this is a disappointment. I thought whoever managed to put together the Millennium Puzzle would have been more fun then this," Takai complained.  
  
"The Millennium Puzzle?" I'd never even heard of it before.  
  
"You put together a magical puzzle that hasn't been solved since it was created - and you _don't even know what it is_?" He seemed insulted.  
  
"It's only one of the most powerful magical objects tied to the Shadow Realm in existence! Out of all the seven Millennium Items, it's the most powerful. I know mages that would sell their teeth just to get a day with their powers! Or should I say I knew them? They all lost to me, almost as pitifully as you are. And with this victory, I'll get the Millennium Puzzle as my prize!"  
  
I noticed then that the Puzzle was hanging around my neck on a rope. It was heavy, making me wonder why I hadn't noticed it sooner. But Takai's words made me angry - I had worked my fingers to the bone putting it together, and I didn't even get a day with it before I was going to lose it forever? That wasn't fair, and neither was tricking me into a game like this.  
  
I glared at the pieces before me. There had to be some way of winning. The object of the game was to attack and destroy a certain piece.  
  
That piece, in this case, was marked with the symbol for 'Soul' - and I realized it must mean our own _personal_ soul, given the result of losing.  
  
Most of the other pieces had symbols for 'Legs', 'Arms', 'Hands', 'Feet', and the rest marked 'Energy'.  
  
If this was a game of life and death, I suddenly realized, then the 'Legs', 'Arms', 'Hands' and 'Feet' could very well mean the real things. A lot of my 'Energy' pieces had been destroyed, and I was getting strangely tired.  
  
'Every time I lose an Energy, I really do lose some energy! I wonder what would happen if lost a Hand or Arm,' I thought to myself.  
  
Takai wasn't nearly a formidable a presence as he was when we met, and that made sense since I had managed to take out some of his Energy pieces as well.  
  
'Well, I won't get anywhere by defending,' I decided, 'So that means I'd better attack instead!'  
  
I was at a disadvantage by this point, but Takai still seemed smug. In fact, he'd made a mistake. A careless error, one I might not have noticed in my defending before.  
  
"Well? Are you going to forfeit after all, _Lord_ Yamakali?" He sneered.  
  
"No - in fact, I'm going to defeat you Takai," I said.  
  
"Oh, you are, are you? May I ask how you expect to do so?" He seemed very amused at my determination.  
  
I smirked. "Well, first I thought I might start by doing this!"  
  
He became astonished as I neatly destroyed four of his Energy pieces. Losing all of them so rapidly made him lose composure for a moment as his energy levels dropped. Then he gave me a grim smile.  
  
"Very good," he panted, "Seems you've figured something out. Now, let me show you the finer points of this game of mine!"  
  
He moved a piece, and I moved a piece, and for the first few minutes that was all we did. Then he managed to pull off a fairly complicated move that destroyed two of my four Arm pieces at once.  
  
The result? My left arm felt like someone had stuck it with a thousand burning needles, only gradually going numb. I felt a little queasy when I finally looked at it. It was faded into almost nothing, just a blur where it was supposed to be! I couldn't even feel it with the numbness.  
  
My left hand was hanging limply, and I couldn't even twitch a finger on it. Takai laughed.  
  
"You see? You see? That's what happens in a Shadow Game!"


	8. Lunar Eclipse

Tulip-Jin: Sorry ya'll. Been busy. Yami-training classes don't pay for themselves, you know.  
  
Chibi Red Eyes Black Dragon: Rawwwwr, rawr rawr rawr rawr. Rawwwwr rawr rrrawwwr, rawwr raaaawr? (You've got some mail, TJ. By the way, what do you learn in Yami-training classes?)  
  
TJ: How to keep control of your Yami without too much loss of life and property damage, of course.  
  
(opens mail)  
  
Letter: Dear TJ. Inclosed is a check for one hundred dollars. Please stop sending your Yami to us. Our insurance is getting too high to pay anymore. Sincerely, the Yami-training class association.  
  
TJ: I guess you CAN make money from a class! That reminds me, its time for Yami's class! You guys just enjoy the fic!  
  
Disclaimer: what do YOU think?

* * *

There was no way to know how long we had been playing. It was the last stage of the game.  
  
I was standing on one, semitransparent leg and my head felt really very fuzzy, and my vision was blurred now. I had three Energies, one Leg, two Arms, two Feet, three Hands, one Head, and of course my Soul.  
  
Takai was faring a little better, standing on two semitransparent legs and playing with a mostly transparent head. He had four Energies, one Foot, two Legs, four Hands, four Arms, and his Soul. It was his move.  
  
"Well, you may have been a fast learner, but there's no way you can win against my vast experience," he said with a chuckle that was strangely echoing in his mostly headless state.  
  
As soon as I figured out what he had moved, a very desperate strategy formed in my mind. It would cost me dearly, but it would be worth it.  
  
I had figured out the depths of this so-called game and although normally I never would have been able to get near his Soul - he was an unbelievable expert and kept moving it out of my reach - I saw there was just one way to keep his Soul from escaping me.  
  
I moved. He laughed, and did exactly what I thought he would - destroyed the three Energies and the Arm I had left exposed. My right arm burned in agony and faded partly as my head swam.  
  
"Foolish boy! I'm surprised you still have the strength to stand up. Soon you'll be too weak to play and collapse, and then the Shadow Realm will claim your soul for eternity and I'll be the new owner of the Millennium Puzzle!"  
  
He seemed taken aback when I laughed.  
  
"Why are you laughing? Has the strain gone to your head? You seem to have gotten all muddled up!"  
  
"No; I'm laughing because I'm about to win, just as I promised you, Takai. Observe!"  
  
It took some effort, to use my half-gone arm to move my still fully there hand, but move I did. Takai screamed in both shock and pain as I removed all his remaining Arms and Legs in a single stroke.  
  
He was left with legs that weren't attached to the feet that kept him upright, and his solid hands hung limply at the ends of nonexistent arms. He tried, but no matter how hard he struggled he couldn't reach for his pieces.  
  
"It looks like you can't move your pieces anymore, Takai. That counts as a forfeit - which means I win!"  
  
"No! No no no! It's impossible! It cannot be!" He shrieked as his Soul began glowing.  
  
I watched in horrified fascination as a black energy shot from that piece and began deleting him from the feet up.  
  
A white energy enveloped me from my own Soul piece, but as it worked from the bottom up I felt my body being restored. Takai screamed and writhed as he was destroyed bit by bit.  
  
Finally, as his head was being engulfed, he fixed his eyes on me.  
  
"Know this, Solver of the Millennium Puzzle! Know that as long as you exist, you shall be tied to that Puzzle and it to you! Your soul is cursed, doomed for all eternity! Do you hear me? Your people shall wither, your world shall be annihilated, and all that you know destroyed and forgotten! By the shadows of the Realm, you will be cursed forever -!"  
  
Takai's final words were cut off as his head was erased. The board vanished, leaving me alone in the Shadow Realm.  
  
I had never felt so utterly exhausted - my magical reserves were almost nonexistent and my body felt like it had been run over by a herd of horses. But there was still the problem of getting out. Turning back in the direction I had come, there was nothing to mark where I might leave by.  
  
And it had occurred to me that there would be more people here then Takai - and they wouldn't hesitate to take advantage of my current state. But there had to be some way of getting back to the palace - I glanced down as the Millennium Puzzle began glowing.  
  
Most mages that employ powerful magical artifacts will tell you that their magic can have a mind of its own. Sometimes, a magical item can be temperamental, moody, or blatantly anti-social.  
  
A good mage has to learn to deal with his magical items by finding some kind of common ground with it. Also, no two magics are exactly alike. I'd have to say the Millennium Puzzle had a one-of-a-kind attitude.  
  
The magic I felt coming from it was best described as bright, cheery, and especially playful.  
  
The Millennium Puzzle just wanted to play games. Didn't matter what kind of games - could be gambling games, could be fighting games, could be strategy games, could be puzzles, could be riddles, you name it, It wanted to play.  
  
It also wanted to win, but It was willing to make exceptions if the game was fun to lose. I found myself chuckling after all this processed - if the Puzzle and I had anything more in common It would be painted in three colors and my skin would be made from gold.  
  
I felt the raw energy of the Puzzle surge through me and reach out, opening a hole in the air in front of me. I stepped through and found myself in my room. There was daylight coming through the windows, late afternoon now.  
  
As the hole closed behind me, I was treated to a startled surprise when a guard stuck his head into my room. He seemed shocked at first, then relieved.  
  
"My Prince!"  
  
Another guard and Hiskotonamekt entered shortly after the shout.  
  
"My Prince, there you are! We've been looking for you - you haven't been in the palace for the last three days!"  
  
I started. The game had lasted _three days_? No wonder they were so upset - more of Father's daughters then his sons had survived this long, and with Egypt at war so often, it needed all the male heirs it could get.  
  
"Where were you? We thought you had been kidnapped!"  
  
"I wasn't kidnapped," I said, tired and a little cranky now.  
  
"Now, if you'll excuse me, I would like to go to sleep."  
  
I then plopped myself on the bench and went to sleep, ignoring Hiskotonamekt's questions.

* * *

Yami Tulip-Jin: Heh heh, things are starting to pick up now! R&R! Or - (reads off card) - I'll, uh, grind your bones to make my bread? What idiot wrote this? You can only make pancakes out of bones! 


	9. Shifting Phases

Tulip-Jin: Ten minutes to showtime! Lets see...Millennium Mace, list of favorite one-liners from You Don't Know Jack - man, I love that gameshow - have I forgotten anything?  
  
Yami Tulip-Jin: Don't forget the makeup to cover up that hidieous boil.  
  
TJ: WHAT?! What hidieous boil?!  
  
Yami TJ: Oh, I'm sorry, that's your face.  
  
TJ: L. O. L. A really rib-splitter, Yami. Anything I REALLY need to remember?  
  
Yami Tj: Well, don't forget to tell whats-their-face not to worry about the pancakes, Aibou.  
  
TJ: Yeah, I know you only like waffles...(stagehand runs up and whispers something in her ear)...What? What do you mean we're live? You mean people can see me? (stagehand nods) Right now? (stagehand nods again) But we don't start filming for another five minutes!  
  
Stagehand: Well, Miss, someone set all the clocks back thirty minutes...except for the one that triggers the cameras.  
  
Yami TJ: (whistles innocently)  
  
TJ: (eye twitching) Is that so? (Whips out Millennium Mace and leaps on Yami TJ, screaming Xena's trademark battle cry)  
  
Stagehand: (sweatdrops) Uh, technical difficulties, folks...why don't you just go on to the fic.  
  
Disclaimer: We own nothing. That means you can't use nothing without OUR permission! MUWAHAHAHA! ...Actually, we'll share it with you. There's plenty of nothing to go around anyway...

* * *

As it turned out, I almost started a scandal. After weeks of being cooped up in my room almost constantly, someone had finally gotten the courage to check and see if I was still alive, only to find me gone. The whole palace guard had been turned out to try and find me - I was supposedly the most important heir, with the whole magic thing and all - and the entire city had been turned inside out.  
  
Hiskotonamekt had been about to send the army into the desert to look for me there when I finally got back from the Shadow Realm. So I was cross-examined by at least a dozen priests for days, but I refused to say anything about the Shadow Realm or my Game with Takai.  
  
I kept the Millennium Puzzle hidden. Eventually, the generally accepted story was that some mischievous spirit had carted me off and brought me back for reasons known only to itself. At least that story wasn't spread around much, but it just made the priests more insistent that I was 'special' somehow.  
  
I managed to make it through all that without stressing myself out too much. Once I wasn't being constantly watched, I started visiting the Shadow Realm almost every night, to practice with the Millennium Puzzle and sometimes, to watch other Shadow Games.  
  
There was one in particular that caught my interest. I only came by at the very end of it, but as I paused to check it out the younger of the two won and destroyed the loser himself with brutal efficiency.  
  
He hung around the area for a while afterwards, letting me get a decent look at him. He had long white hair and a mean face. It was a predator's face, and it looked strange on the body of someone practically my own age.  
  
He started looking around and I spotted the thing he was wearing around his neck. It was a large pendant, a ring with a flat triangle shape inside it and five dangly things hanging around the outside.  
  
Oh, and it was engraved with the Sennen Eye.  
  
I left when he started looking in my direction more intently. He hadn't seen me, but his Millennium Item - that's what It had to be - sensed my presence. That made five I had seen - so there were two such Items still going around unnoticed.  
  
I wondered if anyone had noticed that one of the four in the vault was missing yet, as I practiced and practiced. The Millennium Puzzle helped me channel and control my magic to levels I had never attempted before.  
  
I was generating all the power myself, but It worked as an amplifier. Soon, I was more powerful then all of the priests and magicians in the palace put together. And then I was challenged to another Shadow Game.  
  
I recognized this opponent - he was some nephew of some rich man that lived in town. I'd seen him from a window but I'd never known his name. And I never would - he lost. He saw he was losing, and tried to cheat and attack me directly, which was against the rules we had both agreed to, and I did something I'd never known I could do before.  
  
It was my first ever Game Penalty.  
  
I overdid it a little - most Penalties have a year limit and that's what I was aiming for, but I turned the poor guy into a hallucinating, raving lunatic for the rest of his life. It almost put me off Shadow Games completely until I realized, he deserved it.  
  
Shadow Games bring out the worse qualities in a person, the ones you keep hidden until you want to use them on someone else. And that rich guy, he used his money to terrorize everyone he knew. I sent him back to his own house and returned to mine only to find I'd been gone for less then four hours. No one noticed my second disappearance.  
  
I played more and more Games, winning every one and increasing my magical powers more and more as I went along. The more powerful I got, the less 'real' time I was in the Shadow Realm.  
  
People began noticing the way my skin was getting paler, the aura I was putting off, how I cared less and less about being around people and spent weeks without eating or sleeping or leaving my room, that I was getting obsessed with finding out still more secrets behind my magic.  
  
It was about this time that Seth finally returned.

* * *

TJ: There! That's all the fic you guys get!  
  
...  
  
...  
  
...  
  
TJ: Ah, why the hell not. Chib's on vacation, Yami's holed up under a rock...I'll double the chapter! Go me!

* * *

I hardly recognized him at first - not only was he almost three times my height, his face was drawn and his unusual blue eyes had taken on a dark chill to their depths.  
  
But he greeted me cheerfully, and he teased me about how I had been shrinking, and he still laughed about all the things that had been happening to me while he was away. He'd heard about my 'Mystery Disappearance', and claimed I had been sneaking out to see a girl.  
  
I accused him of trying to flee the country over the past year and we both laughed and for the first time in a while, it was like nothing had ever changed. But that night he had something he wanted to show me.  
  
"Some of the lower-level priests are having a Duel - I'm allowed to bring someone to watch and I knew you'd want to see it," he said.  
  
"A Duel?" I asked.  
  
I had played almost every type of game known, Shadow or normal, but I'd never heard of a Duel before.  
  
"Trust me, you'll love it," he said.  
  
That night, he came to my door and dragged me down to a chamber below the palace that was off-limits for anyone not a important priest. They had to clean it themselves because slaves couldn't go down there.  
  
Seth was right, as usual. The Duel, to me, seemed the be-all end-all of games. Seth was explaining how the chanters energies released the image of the monsters to fight, and tip-toed around explaining its direct connection to the Shadow Realm, but I was too busy watching to care.  
  
Anyone with any sense could feel the Shadow Realm's hand in this, or at least that's how it seemed to me, and I was trying to figure out if the monsters could be summoned from the tablets they were using without all those chanting people. In the end, the lower of the two low-level priests lost and his soul was sent to the Shadow Realm.  
  
Afterwards, I began pestering Seth about getting a chance to Duel. He thought it was cute, and that's how I got my first monster tablet.  
  
"You have to get a certain monster keyed to your magic, see? And then you can summon it in any Dueling area. So, go pick one and then meet me over there," he said as we entered the room where the priests kept all the unused monster tablets.  
  
A 'Dueling Attendant', as they were known, was standing on one side of the small dueling area. There were hundreds of them, all able to summon one and only one monster tablet. They had a short life expectancy, since losing meant being sent to the Shadow Realm.  
  
Anyway, I was left alone to look at all the carvings and pick one. They were beyond count, all strange beasts and people. Nothing seemed to be just right for me - until I saw him.  
  
Well, sure it was a carving, but it was still a he. Slender, with body armor and a long staff, I knew instantly he was what I was looking for. The Millennium Puzzle, hidden underneath my robes as always, glowed in agreement. The hieroglyphics said this creature was called a 'Black Magician'.  
  
Seth gave me a weird look as I practically danced back.  
  
"Seen something you liked?" He asked with a laugh.  
  
I flushed and nodded. "There are so many to choose from! It's amazing! And no one but the priests even knows these are here!"  
  
"You're giving us too much credit, Yamakali," Seth said. "Some other people do know about this. Now, did you pick a monster?"  
  
"Yes! Now what do I do?"  
  
I must have sounded very eager, since Seth laughed at me again. He directed me to stand on the opposite side of the tiny ring. It might have been my imagination, but there seemed to be a darker sense running under his normal features.  
  
"Now, in this ring, summoning is easy. You just need to concentrate on the monster you picked. Here, Attendant Dakal will show you."  
  
Attendant Dakal held his hands over the flat stone area in front of him. Slowly, it lifted to a vertical position, then turned to face me. A small but powerful looking figure was carved on its surface.  
  
"Judge Man, I call yea forth unto this plane!"  
  
After Attendant Dakal spoke and the tablet finished its turn, the Judge Man appeared, hanging faded in midair. He looked very tough, and I could have sworn Seth had a satisfied smirk on his face.  
  
The penalty for me losing this was just about the same as it was for losing a Game in the Shadow Realm itself - and _he knew it_. I knew then that there was something wrong or at least different about Septhroith now. But what he didn't know - what nobody knew - was that I was used to playing for my very existence.  
  
"Time to summon, Yamakali," Septhroith called across the area to me.  
  
I concentrated, focused on the monster I had seen, the one that seemed so utterly different yet utterly perfect. The flat stone in front of me rose up, and then I was face to face with that carving again.  
  
I could sense the raw energy hidden behind that stone façade and I knew the 'Judge Man' was not going to be a match for it.  
  
"I summon…the Black Magician!" As I spoke, the tablet turned and my monster appeared. Somehow, I expected the purple. It seemed natural. So did my next order.  
  
"Black Magician, Black Magic Attack!"  
  
The magician charged up his magic and blasted away. The Judge Man vanished, his tablet crumbled, and Attendant Dakal vanished into a blur of light with a scream. I saw the look of anger on Septhroith's face before he hid it under a look of fake happy surprise.  
  
"You picked a good monster to defeat that one - Dakal was one of the strongest Attendants here! I guess congratulations are in order for yet another win, how about it Yamakali?" He said as he came over.  
  
During all this, the Dark Magician went back into his tablet and the tablet went back to its original position.  
  
"All I want to do to celebrate is to play this Dueling game some more," I told him with genuine enthusiasm, "And it was probably only luck on my part this time. You've been playing with these all the time you were gone, weren't you?" I accused him, and we both laughed and chatted and pretended it was all the same, but now both of us were lying straight-faced. 


	10. Full Moon

Tulip-Jin: (stares at unreviewed chapter)  
  
Chibi Red Eyes Black Dragon: Rawwwwr rawr, rawr rawr rrrawwwwrr. Rawwwwr rawr? (Oh great, I leave for a few days and then this happens. No reviews yet?)  
  
TJ: (eye twitches)  
  
Chibi Red Eyes: Rawwwrrr, raaaaawr rawr rawr rrrrawwwwwr. Rawr. (Everybody, I highly recommend reviewing this chapter. ASAP.)  
  
Disclaimer: Don't own Yugioh...well that's a big fat DUH.

* * *

It was not long after this that it happened. The ugly incident that would end up changing the course of history completely, not to mention completely ruin my life, started off nicely enough as a festival in Suketahmeth, a border kingdom/city-state to our west.  
  
Suketahmeth was an ambitious little place, and the largest of all the border kingdoms around Egypt. The idea was that Suketahmeth was going to play match maker for all of us. Father agreed to send all my sisters, and for days you could find them bragging to each other and comparing notes on possible husbands.  
  
I had a chance to speak with Anza for the first time in a while, before she left with them. She was serving as a maid again, this time to Leianth, the youngest before me. I told her of my suspicions about Septhroith, and she warned me to not take any chances. Court politics were the worst of anything.  
  
"Have you heard from Jono or Hotra lately? They visited me a few weeks ago, and they were so excited - they're going to be real soldiers, from what I could tell," she said.  
  
"No, I haven't heard from them," I said, "But I'm not surprised. If they do well enough as soldiers, they might be made generals and serve in Court."  
  
"I don't think they have the attention spans for that," she said with a laugh.  
  
When she had to leave to get ready for the journey tomorrow, I teased her about getting hitched with someone and she laughed. The festival was only supposed to last a few days, with a few days travel both ways, but time passed and there wasn't any word. Until the advisor Father had sent with the girls dragged himself into the palace half-dead. The word?  
  
Ambush and betrayal.  
  
King Tokay, Lord of Suketahmeth, had of late acquired a new Grand Vizier. Under the newcomer's influence, the festival had been attacked by Suketahmethian troops and many people killed.  
  
Some of my sisters had been killed, and all the people not killed were being held hostage. Already, our other neighbors were paying their tributes to King Tokay and his Grand Vizier.  
  
Even now, we could have negotiated but Father's violent streak, one that had been getting more and more prominent since his old illness, reared up and he ordered all fit men ready for battle.  
  
Hearing of magic wielding troops, High Priest Henshin sent along a contingent of mages lead by Septhroith. All of the remaining royal heirs left were ordered to fight and rescue their sisters.  
  
Luckily for me, I had had some training, so I wasn't completely useless. It was one of Old Master's rules - you couldn't have strong magic unless you had a strong body to channel it through.  
  
I was primarily an archer and that got me put in charge of the chariot archers. When we first set out, I made a remarkable discovery about the two soldiers assigned to protect me.  
  
"_Jono? Hotra?_ I don't believe it!" To be honest, I was getting amazed that this kept happening.  
  
"Heh heh heh, hiya Yamakali! Long time no see!" Jono said with his old grin.  
  
"We haven't seen you in a while, how've you been? Anza told us you were cooped up in your room studying magic all the time the last time we saw her!" Hotra said.  
  
"I did go outside some of the time," I pouted. "She told me you two were becoming quite the army men."  
  
"Yeah, that Hiskoto-whats-his-name skipped us from guard training real early on! He said we were the best he'd seen in years, ain't that right Hotra?" Jono said.  
  
"Yep! Guess biting royal family members is a good-luck charm!" Hotra said.  
  
"Don't even consider it," I said as Hotra began eyeing me.  
  
"Why Yamakali, I can't believe you would even think that! I would never try to improve our chances by biting you!" Hotra said.  
  
"Look, Hotra - you wanna improve our chances? Then let me drive! That way we can avoid crashing on our way there!" Jono said as he tried to take the reins.  
  
"Are you implying I can't drive a chariot?"  
  
"No, I'm not implying - I'm SAYING, you can't drive!"  
  
"Oh yeah?"  
  
"Yeah!"  
  
"Well, I can drive better then you!"  
  
"Can not!"  
  
"Can too!"  
  
While this was going on, I rolled my eyes, took the reins, and drove the blasted thing myself. It took a few hours of arguing before they realized we were moving.  
  
"Hey, you didn't need to do that, we could've driven for ya!"  
  
I sighed as this started up a whole new argument.  
  
Father didn't stop until we were at the chosen place for the battle, on the other side of a field from Suketahmeth's capital city of Ba-ah-al. Then we tried to sleep with the tension building over all our heads.  
  
Normally, I would vent tension by wandering around the Shadow Realm until someone challenged me, but that clearly wasn't an option right now. Even Jono and Hotra were being serious, but then again they had just found out that Anza was in Ba-ah-al somewhere, assuming she was still alive.  
  
I tried sleeping, but the aura the city was putting off interfered with my sleeping patterns. I wandered around the camp, trying to clear my head. Here and there I found priests trying to do the same.  
  
Anyone with any magical sensitivity was in much the same way. I spotted Septhroith from a distance - he was trying to meditate but it wasn't working. The Shadow Realm was highly present in the area, and that was the problem.  
  
Eventually I managed to get enough sleep to tide me over. 


	11. Blue Moon

Tulip-Jin: Dun dun dun DAAAAAAAAAAH! The next chapter of this fic is here! YYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYY!  
  
Yami Tulip-Jin: I know I'll regret asking this, but why the heck are you so happy right now, Aibou?  
  
TJ: Lots of soda, fish for lunch, REALLY perky music on the computer...all that and you actually need to ASK?!?!!  
  
Yami TJ: (sweatdrop)  
  
TJ: (Dances in front of computer to the music)  
  
Chibi Red Eyes Black Dragon & Yami TJ: (double sweatdrop)  
  
Disclaimer: Does anybody know the Klingon word for 'Blindingly Obvious'?

* * *

.

Father planned to attack at dawn. It was a good strategy - the sun would be at our backs, at its lowest, and it would blind the enemy. However, just before dawn _they_ attacked _us_.  
  
It had been a tiny expeditionary force, sent to gauge our strength, and three of them escaped. Father decided to forget the plan and attack right then. It was his standard method of battle - foot soldiers and cavalry first, priests right behind them, archers to provide cover fire, and then the lowly chariot archers were left as a reserve.  
  
Hiskotonamekt, who doubled as the commanding general with authority just below Father's, gave us special orders. We were on rescue.  
  
"You'd better be careful with these two, my Prince," he said as he indicated Jono and Hotra. "I'd like to get a few more years out of them."  
  
Then he had to go direct the rest of the army. It certainly was a large army, the biggest Egypt had put into the field for some time. Everyone was waiting anxiously before the word was finally given.  
  
While the two great armies clashed on the field, my chariots circled the city swiftly and entered from behind. We shot those that stood against us full of arrows and those that we missed…well, the chariots took care of them for the most part.  
  
All the women were being held in a low brick building, surrounded by guards. The foot soldiers that went in each chariot, with some help from the archers, took them out fairly quickly and with minimal losses. Soon, women were being helped into chariots or into the few large wagons we were borrowing from the city. Not many of them were ours, and there were only three sisters that were still alive.  
  
But Anza was there, and she slapped Hotra and Jono for trying to hug her before she recognized them. Then she slapped them again. Don't ask me why - I think it was some female thing.  
  
While we went back the way we had come, our mission having been very successful if I do say so myself, we soon saw the rest of the battle was going very badly.  
  
Our side was fighting a desperate and losing fight, and so I ordered my forces in from both sides. The classic pincer movement I had employed in my games before worked better then ever, and our side began pushing forward again.  
  
At some point I found myself on foot, and out of arrows. I did have a short sword on me, but it was pure luck that I didn't gut myself with it when I tried to use it. Then it got stuck in the body of the soldier I was fighting and wouldn't come out no matter how hard I pulled.  
  
So I ducked my head and ran around, trying not to be such a visible target. Of course, that wasn't very possible. Three minor level enemy mages confronted me.  
  
"Look, it's the Pharaoh's youngest whelp! Master Bekareh will give us great rewards for killing him!" One said.  
  
They pointed their staffs at me and I figured I was about to die. They each shot a ball of flame at me, which combined into one huge whirling inferno on its way over. I threw my hands up to shield myself in a instinctive but useless gesture.  
  
After a moment I noticed I was still alive. I found myself standing inside a whirlwind of fire. The mage's spells drove the flames towards me but something else kept them back. It took a minute for me to track, but afterwards it seemed obvious.  
  
It was the Millennium Puzzle!  
  
It's magic was practically laughing as It warded the flames off. The mages could be heard yelling, trying to figure out what the heck was going on. They increased the power. Still the Puzzle protected me.  
  
This was a game to It - a game called Play with the Nice Fire. I sensed It could do much more then simply block the flames, if I could get It to work.  
  
The mage's yells increased as I drew the whirlwind in closer, making it grow taller and spin faster. It was a firestorm now, and the spectacle drew the attention of still more enemy mages. Their powerful attack spells were going to be their undoing.  
  
To the outsider's eye, the flames suddenly sank into a low, tight circle, before exploding outwards with dangerous force. Fire engulfed everyone nearby, all those mages destroyed before they could blink an eye. It was really something to see.  
  
It didn't even occur to me that I wasn't supposed to be enjoying that part.  
.

.

Picking my way past corpse after corpse after corpse, I found that a command tent had been set up and the wounded were getting treated as best as they could be around it, all in the middle of the field.  
  
The fighting had entered Ba-ah-al itself now. As I tried to hurry my way over, a misstep sent me sprawling into a tiny dip. Grumbling and pushing myself up, I discovered myself face to face with the absolute last sight I wanted to see.  
  
Father.  
  
Or at least his body.  
  
There were a dozen dead men around him, and the three spears that went straight through him were evidence enough of how he had been killed. His dead fingers still had a death grip on his broken sword, and he hadn't been dead for very long.  
  
I know, I know, a future ruler of Egypt is supposed to be bold in the face of Anubis himself, but still I retched. It was such a waste, such a stupid and pointless waste!  
  
Once I recovered, I did the proper thing, laying Father out as befitted a fallen warrior. His eyes were closed, which was good because I didn't think I could handle being the one to close them. Once I had finished, I took Father's war crown.  
  
It was bloody. I was bloody too. I certainly scared Hiskotonamekt when I stumbled into the tent that way.  
  
"My Prince! Are you alright? What -" He stopped and went pale when he saw what I was holding.  
  
"No…our Lord Pharaoh! Such a cursed day this be," he said mournfully as he took the crown from me.  
  
In front of him, on a table, was a map of the area, covered with hastily scribbled marks. Hiskotonamekt said something, and I looked at him blankly until he repeated it.  
  
"Prince Yamakali, you must take command for now. None of your brothers that we've found have survived! King Tokay was betrayed by his Grand Vizier and slain, and the Vizier's henchmen have been seeking out all royal family members!"  
  
I chuckled grimly. "I know, I was accosted by about ten of them."  
  
"What happened?" He asked.  
  
"Let's just say they got a taste of their own magic," I said.  
  
I hadn't meant to, but the fold of my robes that concealed the Millennium Puzzle slipped away to reveal the Item in all It's splendor. Hiskotonamekt was no fool, and he was well informed on what was supposed to be in the vaults and what wasn't.  
  
"Dare I ask where you got that, my Prince?" He was a bit sarcastic. I frowned and he stepped back.  
  
"I take it you don't approve?" I asked. It was meant as a rhetorical question.  
  
He sighed. "No, but I'll bet the palace it's too late for my say to have any effect. This might even turn out useful - the Vizier wears something just like that, but round. I just got a report on him. He's rather noticeable -"  
  
"White hair and a rather ruthless attitude?"  
  
"Exactly," he said. "Our priests can barely hold him off as it is - seems he has magic of his own. I'm open to suggestions, milord."  
  
I nodded. "I'll take care of him. Don't let anyone know about Father - he's, uh, over in that little dip right now," I said with a head thrust in the proper direction.  
  
"It would demoralize the others if they found out."  
  
"Good luck," Hiskotonamekt said as I left and headed to where the battle was at it's fiercest.


	12. In Darkness just before Dawn

Chibi Red Eyes Black Dragon: Rawwwwr! Rawr rawr rawr, rawwwwwwrr rawr rawr! (Hey everybody! I just wanted to say, thanks so much for all the positive feedback you've been giving us!)  
  
Tulip-Jin and Yami Tulip-Jin: (dancing around happily)  
  
Chibi Red Eyes: Rawr rawr rawr, rawr rawr rawr rraawwwrrr... (And from me especially, thanks for helping keeping those two from killing each other...)  
  
TJ: Huh? Oh yeah, that reminds me!  
  
(TJ whips out Millennium Mace)  
  
TJ: Aha! I challenge thee to a duel of honor!  
  
(Yami TJ whips out Giant Mallet of Doom)  
  
Yami TJ: Forget honor, Aibou, them's fightin' words!  
  
TJ: Have at thee, vile demon!  
  
(Cue huge dustcloud fight)  
  
Chibi Red Eyes: sigh Rawr rawr, rawwwwwrrr rawr RAWR rawr rraaaawwr... (I forgot, they're only really happy when they ARE killing each other...)  
  
Disclaimer: For those of you who are extremely gullible, I own Yugioh! And if you really believed that... (cue shrieks of hysterical laughter)

* * *

. 

.  
Some enemy soldiers confronted me as I headed to where our priests were trying to defend themselves. I was drawing on more of my power then usual, so it was little wonder that every weapon they swung at me exploded.  
  
Besides, I was getting fed up with the fighting. I felt the wave of shadow power before I saw it - and saw all our loyal priests, sent to the Shadow Realm with one blast. The one responsible was laughing as he stood boldly before our remaining soldiers.  
.

He was exactly as I had seen him in the Shadow Realm, all that time ago - except wearing much richer clothes now, of course.  
. Four of his mages were with him. They were prepared to slaughter whatever got in their way. The city was lost but this traitor didn't care. This was just a way to get more power, to him.  
  
"Master Bekareh - look!"  
  
I was a bit of an eye catcher I'll admit, but all that the mysterious 'Bekareh' cared to see was the Puzzle hanging around my neck.  
  
"The Millennium Puzzle," he cried with delight as the ring hanging from his chest began glowing, "And It's on the last whelp! This is too easy! Kill him!"  
  
I made a point of yawning as the four of them did the fire thing again. Well, maybe it was a bit more complicated because I had to not hit my own soldiers this time, but otherwise it was easy.  
  
I went for the dramatic - raising my right arm into the air as the Puzzle's magic channeled the fire stream around me, I pulled it all into a ball over my head. The mages kept pumping more fire and the more they pumped the more I sucked up and the bigger my fireball got.  
  
"Stop that, you idiots! You're not having any effect!" Bekareh yelled.  
  
It was a little late, in my opinion. Once I was certain there was no more incoming fire, I yelled, "I believe this is yours, here you go!", and flung my hand forward - yet another dramatic, of course - as the fire shot towards the magi and roasted them.  
. 

.  
Well, it roasted the mages, at least. Bekareh used the power of his Millennium Item to shield himself. Once the flames mostly died down, he stormed forward and snarled at me.  
  
"Well then, it was _you_ my Ring has been sensing! The one they've been calling the King of Shadow Games, the Undefeatable Wielder of the Millennium Puzzle! We'll see if you're worth that title. My games are more dangerous then any you've ever seen! I shall destroy you with the powers of my Millennium Ring!"  
.

.

.  
Wisely, everyone else retreated. Bekareh was chanting under his breath as his Ring began glowing brightly. The air darkened around us, and I suddenly realized what he was doing. A monster appeared in front of him, then another. One I recognized as a Morphing Jar, the other was some squat purplish thing.  
.

.  
Both were relatively weaker monsters, but that was only compared to the other monsters I had fought with and against in Duels. Monsters in general were much, _much_ stronger than humans.  
.

.  
I tried to dodge but was struck by a glancing blow of thunder from the purple thing. For some reason, all my brain could track on was that the monsters were solid. That and that they had been summoned without any tablets at all.  
  
"It looks like taking your Millennium Puzzle will be easier then I thought," Bekareh chuckled. "Now, my Morphing Jar, finish him off. Defend yourself from this if you can!"  
  
The Morphing Jar's pot bounced forward a little before the head shot out, yellow teeth bared and ready to destroy me. I didn't think about it, I just grabbed at the power the Puzzle was offering and yanked.  
  
The air opened in front of me and something shot out, something that attacked the Morphing Jar and sliced it into two halves, down to it's pot. It was only after the Morphing Jar vanished that I recognized the monster I had just summoned.  
  
He was the second one of the personal monsters I Dueled with, and my favorite next to my Black Magician. The Celtic Guardian turned halfway around, in order to look in my direction and keep an eye on the enemy at the same time.  
.

I'd overdone it somewhat, so I was busily catching my breath. Bekareh's other monster, the purple thing, waddled forward and charged up its thunder for another attack. I think it was planning to aim past the Celtic Guardian at me, and that's certainly what the Celtic Guardian thought, since he attacked without waiting for my order.  
  
The thing died with a squeal of delight. Delight, as it turned out, from what happened to my Celtic Guardian next. There was a crackling of lighting and he sank to his knees with a cry of pain, leaning heavily on his sword. Bekareh laughed.  
  
"That's what happens, when you attack the Electric Lizard! And now your only monster is helpless to defend itself as I summon the beast of your destruction! Behold! I summon the mighty Beast of Talwar to this dimension!"  
  
The monster appeared out of a swirling vortex which grew at Bekareh's feet. It was huge, and carried two long and very intimidating swords. The people still watching scurried farther away.  
. 

.  
Celtic Guardian still couldn't move, and I wasn't in much better shape myself. The Talwar Beast readied it's swords and it looked like it was going to skewer me and the Celtic Guardian with one attack. I knew there was one thing I could do - the question was, could I pull it off? Only one way to find out.  
  
I poured the dregs of my power into it as the Beast began it's attack.  
  
"Black Magician - arise and come forth onto _this plane_!"  
  
The Black Magician appeared and without hesitation attacked the Beast. It roared as the magical energy vaporized it, and I thought I heard Bekareh screaming something as the magic continued onwards to hit him as well.  
  
I'm not sure what happened next, because I blacked out.  
.

.

.  
"…My Prince? My Prince, can you hear me? Lord Yamakali?"  
  
I groaned as something rudely shook me, and opened my eyes with the intent of telling off whoever was doing that. Instead of it going as I planned, I was struck by a rare sight indeed - a hyperactive Hiskotonamekt.  
  
"Praise Ra, you've finally awakened!"  
  
"What…," I mumbled, "Hiskoto…?"  
  
"Yes, milord. You're safe now, and so is everyone else. You saved everyone from that man!"  
  
He was grinning disturbingly as I forced myself up. It felt like there was a lead weight hanging from my neck - oh wait, that was the Puzzle.  
  
"What happened," I asked. "I can't remember."  
  
"Well, I don't know where you summoned those two strange creatures from, but they destroyed Ba-ah-al. All of it. There aren't even ruins to show where it was. None of their people escaped," Hiskotonamekt said. His tone was sobering now as he relayed the information.  
  
"We had to move further away from the city, they even destroyed the enemy corpses! Only after no trace of the city or anything else from Suketahmeth was left did they finally go back to whatever place you called them from," Hiskotonamekt continued, as I looked myself over.  
  
"We couldn't even get near you before then; that green one kept driving us off whenever we got close."  
  
I raised an eyebrow in curiosity. In a way, I wasn't surprised. Some of the people I had Dueled viewed their monsters as their personal gladiators, mindless slaves set to fight for their amusement.  
.

.  
They thought I was an idiot for thinking there were souls buried underneath all that stone. I might be the only one with that viewpoint - and if I was right then it made perfect sense that the monsters would want such an idea protected at all costs.  
  
Either that or I really was crazy.  
.

.  
Hiskotonamekt seemed about to protest as I got up. I swayed a little at first, but my legs seemed to be working properly. I was still tired but not tired enough to want to sleep.  
  
"Hiskoto," I asked, "What about the others? Did anyone -"  
  
"Not many survived. The few priests that weren't killed here only made it because we sent them after the women to protect them. And…"  
  
I guessed it. "I'm the only one that's left, aren't I?"  
  
"I'm afraid so."


	13. Sunrise

Chibi Red Eyes Black Dragon: Rawwwr, rawr! Rawwwwr rawr rawr rrrrawwwwrr rawr rrrawwrm, raawwwwwwrrr... (Hey, folks! Sorry this next chapter took so long to get posted, but you see...)  
  
Tulip-Jin:(from distance) NNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! I DON'T WANNNNNNNNAAAAAA!!!!!!!  
  
Yami Tulip-Jin:(also in distance) Ra-dammit Aibou, you're going back dead or alive! Stop squirming!  
  
TJ: I DON'T WANNA GO BACK TO SCHOOL!!!! YOU CAN'T MAKE ME GO!!!!!  
  
Yami TJ: Wanna bet on that?  
  
Chibi Red Eyes: Rawwrr rawr, rawwwwrr rawr rawr...rawr...rawwwwr rawr. Rrrrrraaaawwwwrrrr rawr rawr, rawwwwwwrr rawr! (As you can see, TJ's gotta a little...attached...to her vacation. But to cheer everybody up, here's the next chapter of our fic!)  
  
TJ:(being dragged away by her Yami) YOU HAVEN'T HEARD THE LAST OF MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.......Disclaimer: Let's all make an intelligent guess here: Do I A) Not own Yugioh, or B) Not own Yugioh?

* * *

.  
Hotra and Jono were acting door guard when I finally left the tent. The remains of our once-mighty army were sitting around nearby, and they all started cheering when they saw me.  
  
"What on earth?"  
  
"Hey Yamakali, you're a hero!" Jono said. He looked a bit run-down but was as full of energy as ever.  
  
"That freaky guy with the magic powers would have destroyed us all if you hadn't stopped him," Hotra said, "Everyone that saw you thinks you're the best magician in Egypt!"  
  
"Yeah, especially since that trainee High Priest guy took off," Jono said but then I asked, "Septhroith left?"

.  
. "His name's Seto-roth? Yeah, he left. Didn't make much sense, he was doing better then most of us."  
.

.  
That information settled uncomfortably in the pit of my stomach, but what happened next made me feel worse. Hiskotonamekt gave me an apologetic look before he unveiled a certain corpse. I didn't look but that didn't mean I couldn't hear it.  
  
"A terrible thing has befallen us - our Lord Pharaoh has been slain!"  
  
"No!"  
  
"What shall become of Egypt now?"  
  
"Can nothing be done?"  
  
"Be at peace! Our Lord Pharaoh died as a warrior should, protecting the people of Egypt even as Anubis came for him! But there is greater tragedy still - the Crown Prince and his brothers lie here, slain as well!"  
  
"The heirs to the throne are no more!"  
  
There was a great outcry, until someone yelled out, "Wait! There is still one left!"  
.

"I'm being referred to like a piece of merchandise, how lovely," I murmured to myself as everyone remembered what I was.  
. 

.  
"Yamakali, whose great magical powers saved us all! He is the only one that can be the next Pharaoh!"  
  
I was brought forward - at least Hiskotonemekt had the decency to cover Father's body up again - and everyone began shouting.  
  
"Yamakali, the people of Egypt ask that you take up your father's mantel and be Lord of all Egypt. Do you accept?"  
  
I was seriously considering saying no.  
  
"If it is the will of the People," I said slowly, knowing I had no choice and hating it, "Then yes. I accept!"  
.

.  
There was the usual amount of cheering as I accepted the small head ornament that the Pharaoh wore before he was officially crowned. That would have to wait until we got back to the palace. Once that was settled we broke camp and headed back.  
  
Most of the army consisted of wounded foot soldiers now, and all our horses were carting back the dead for proper burial, so the going was very slow.  
  
That and I secretly wanted to drag out the last few days of freedom I had left. My first official act, if you could call it that, was to name Hiskotonamekt as personal advisor. It was a relief for me to have someone like him there to talk with.  
.

.  
Plus my friends were there too. Jono and Hotra didn't see my new status as any more of a barrier then my previous status had been.  
  
Jono did ask me where I found 'that really shiny necklace thingy' I was wearing - he was wondering if he could own something like it.  
  
I ended up with a bad case of hysterics afterwards, and Jono never asked again, but it was a relief to be able to laugh at all in my situation.  
  
There was a large crowd that turned out when we finally made it back. They were politely upset that Father was dead, as were all my other brothers - they hadn't been the most liked of people - and when they heard I was the new Pharaoh they were polite about it as well. I was still considered a dangerous freak, a notion reinforced when the story of the end of battle had been passed around.  
.

.  
My last three sisters, already weak and sickly from captivity, didn't take the news nearly as well. One fell into her bath and drowned by accident, one ate some poison by mistake, and one was straightforward about it and fell onto a sword.  
  
It was relief all around - had they been alive protocol required that I marry them, and after our childhood that would have been too awkward.  
.

.  
But before I could be officially crowned, Henshin at last revealed his hand and tried to take the throne for himself. Leading the army of traitors alongside him was the one I once and still considered my oldest friend, Septhroith.


	14. Sunset

Tulip-Jin: Well, ladies and gents, we're in the home stretch! I'd just like to take this time to say a few words.

Yami Tulip-Jin: Hey-ya, frizzim spizzak!

TJ:(blinks) And what, dare I ask, was that?!

Yami TJ:(shrugs) You were taking too long.

TJ:(sighs)

Disclaimer: See just about every other chapter and get the general idea, okay ppl?

* * *

It was much, much later, once most of the traitors had been defeated, that I had the Shadow Game which would be carved into the walls of tombs and then left untouched for five thousand years.  
  
However, I still felt some kinship for Septhroith, and only had him imprisoned. Even despite the sheer destruction and havoc that they - and my loyal forces as well - had wreaked, I tried not to kill the disloyal priests or soldiers. Many of them had been simply deceived. I was forced into drastic measures with the High Priest himself.  
.

.  
He simply refused to let me not kill him.  
.

.  
He had turned to Necromancy in his hunger for power and I found myself being attacked by the ghosts of all my siblings. Or at least, shadows that took their appearance. I would like to think I would have done the exact same thing in either case.  
.

.  
…The battle itself was rather…um…actually, I'd rather not think about it…  
.

.  
When it was over, I sent the remains straight to the farthest depths of the Shadow Realm. He would never escape as long as he lived. Reincarnation, well, that was a different story.  
  
Originally, I had planned to spare as many of the traitors as I could. This turned into a very small amount as other priests who were following Henshin's footsteps into Necromancy attacked their way to freedom.  
  
The skies went black as they drew on more of their evil magical powers. Once they were free, all of them turned around and began attacking the palace again. It was madness! Some of them had even broken through the weakening trap spells in the vaults on their way out and I had to fight another Millennium Item, the necklace one this time. This second insurrection lasted almost a full year.  
.

.  
This was no longer any part of Henshin's intricate scheme. I checked with the source, or at least the closest thing to it.  
  
I gave Septhroith a choice - help or be sent to the Shadow Realm then and there.  
  
He wisely chose help.  
  
Even though I had to watch my back constantly around him now, it was still almost like old times. Many of the Necromancers lost their souls to the Shadow Realm, and even those that didn't, I had executed after the fighting finally stopped.  
  
It was all very public, and that should have worried me immensely, but you know what, I was too angry to care that the Shadow Realm was affecting me.  
.

.  
Necromancy deals with death. Anza, along with several other innocent bystanders, had been butchered in one warlock's hideous ritual.  
  
Hotra was dead too - he took a full power flesh-decaying spell to the chest, and we had to put him out of his misery.  
  
Jono sort of lost it from that and got himself killed less then two days later.  
  
Even Hiskotonamekt was dead now. Everything I had ever relied on was dead or changed forever. It shouldn't have been such a surprise when I began actively seeking Shadow Games. I mentioned once before, Shadow Games bring out a person's absolute worst.  
  
Septhroith, whenever he played, revealed his own dark ambitions. Me? I played to win. No cost was too high for me. Shadow Games were played for power and souls, and I always, always, _always_ won.  
.

.  
It had gotten pretty chaotic by my eighteenth year of life. The Shadow Realm had been drawn on so heavily and so often in the recent past that it had begun leaking into the normal world all on its own.  
  
In a year, maybe less, the walls between dimensions would shatter entirely and the darkness of the Shadow Realm would flood through Egypt and go on to destroy the entire world.  
  
And I didn't care. I was scaring even Septhroith these days, with the unbridled ferocity of the Games I fought and the Duels I played. You could hear people whispering everywhere, about how the Pharaoh was going insane and how I was going to end up killing them all.  
  
Even the normally bright, cheerful energies of the Millennium Puzzle weren't nearly so bright or cheery anymore. I knew there was something wrong with me but I couldn't very well stop myself. It was like I needed something, something that wasn't there - or if it was, I couldn't find it. And without it, I'd keep playing Shadow Games until the heat death of the universe.  
  
My powers were unparalleled, unequaled, unassailable, and ultimately worthless. What good was all my power if I lived the life of an empty shell? Sometimes I thought a stray breeze might blow me away. What was I supposed to do, kill myself?  
  
'That wouldn't help. Egypt needs a leader.'  
  
Yeah, and I sure was some leader, wasn't I? I kept hearing about a certain tomb raider that kept trying to rob Father's tomb. I had collected all seven Millennium Items by this time and Father's tomb was the only place safe to put them.  
  
So of course they weren't actually in there, but since only I knew that they were safe. Bekareh was hunting for them, first to get the Millennium Ring back and then to steal all the other Items and make himself more powerful then me.  
  
He still wanted to rule the world, and I was his number one obstacle. Father's tomb was probably the only one that hadn't been robbed by the stray necromancer-thief.  
  
Still, I couldn't ignore this. If I let the Shadow Realm through, not only would the world be destroyed but it would be all my fault.  
  
(("Yamakali! I'm telling Father what you did! This mess is all your fault!"))  
  
(("But I didn't do anything!"))  
  
Not that not doing anything had anything to do with it. No one had as intimate a relationship with the Shadow Realm as I did. It was a dimension of pure magic, and if you listened carefully you could hear it's low, insistent voice demanding release as clawed at the uncountable cracks in the walls. Or at least I could.  
.

.  
And if I stood back and let the world be destroyed, well, I'd be guilty of not helping. It was something Anza used to say when we were little…when she was Numari's slave. If I visited her and she was working, I had to help her out as much as I could.  
  
Otherwise I was 'guilty of not helping'.  
  
Anza always said it like that was a terrible thing to be guilty of. So for some reason, I wanted to be guilty of everything but not helping. That would be like spitting on my memory of Anza.  
  
But what could I do, really? The Shadow Realm wasn't going to listen to anyone planning to stop it, let alone me; I wouldn't be able to get every shadow magic user before the break happened and besides, they only accelerated the problem.  
  
It was going to happen if they played Shadow Games or not. Feeling incredibly frustrated, I decided pacing wasn't going to help and I looked outside instead. Even under the ever-blackening sky, people tried to live their lives as they always had.  
.

.  
They bought and sold things in the Marketplace, lived in their houses, farmed their land, and let their children play in the streets. I saw a small group of them playing closer to the palace walls then most.  
  
A lot of people had decided the palace was haunted or worse, so it was avoided as much as possible. I squinted in order to see better. What were they doing?  
  
Under the direction of one girl, the other boys and girls were piling up rocks. It didn't make any sense until they finished and the children moved to both sides. The pile went up to their waists, and was intricately constructed in a sort of roundish shape. The girl that had designed it stood in the middle and all the other children began throwing pebbles at the rock pile.  
  
They threw as hard as they could, and yet the shape held! For the most part, at least. And whenever a piece of the shape got knocked out of place, the shape's creator grabbed it and stuck it back in. She even used some of the scattered pebbles to shore up the edges on occasion.  
  
I was in the middle of turning away from the window, wondering where did children get their ideas, when something caught my attention.  
  
I saw it out of the very corner of my eye, and it took me a few moments to relocate it. I stood there with my jaw hanging open in disbelief when I finally realized what I was really looking at.  
  
The children's shape was nothing but a rough imitation, but it was _without a doubt a Sennen Eye_.  
  
"That's it," I said to myself.  
  
"That's what I need to do!"


	15. Solar Eclipse

Tulip-Jin: And here it is, the last chapter of my fourth fic evah! YIPPEE!!!

Yami Tulip-Jin: Oh joy, oh rapture.

Chibi Red Eyes Black Dragon: Raaawwwr rawr, raawrr rawr...rawr. (Now TJ has time for more important things, like...recreational sports or something.)

Yami TJ: Why're you so bummed out? (blinks) Aibou's gonna have more free time...SHE'LL HAVE MORE FREE TIME?!

Yami TJ bolts for the nearby Closet O' Riot Gear, still fully stocked from the last time TJ forgot to update.

TJ: Free time! WOO-HOO! Who wants to go white-water rafting! Ooh, ooh, I do! YYYYYAAAAAYYYYY!!!!!

Disclaimer: Yugioh owned by....think about it. Take your time.

WARNING: Do not attempt rituals involving seven magical objects and a dimension of evil magic without a certified magical technician on-site.

* * *

"Your Highness, are you certain that this is such a good idea," Septhroith asked as he eyed me warily.  
  
Well, so what if I was strangely energized on what was the darkest day we'd seen yet?  
  
"Yes! Yes High Priest Septhroith, this is the only way," I said.  
  
In front of me, on a pedestal, were all seven of the Millennium Items. It was the first time in years I had taken off the Millennium Puzzle and It looked almost forlorn as It sat in the center.  
  
"Now, where is that - ah! Priestess, you made it," I cried as a woman entered.  
  
She was heavy with her third child, but she still bowed. I pointed out where she should wait.  
  
"Don't come back until we finish, do you understand? Not that I fear for you, but I really have no idea what this might do to your child," I practically babbled.  
. 

.  
Worse, she seemed to think it was funny.  
  
"At last, I see a Pharaoh that acts his age. I can go to the gods happy now," she commented. I almost banished all the red from my face before she saw it.  
  
"Priestess Ishtar, do yours and your husband's families know what to do if all goes as planned?"  
  
"Yes; but are you so certain you will return?"  
  
"I'll never die anywhere but in Egypt, I promise you," I said as I escorted her out.  
  
Septhroith had overheard most of that. He seemed very upset with me. I ignored him at first, while he tried to find out what I hoped to gain from this strange ritual. I wasn't in the mood for his petty politics right now.  
  
"Damn it - _Yam-kal_!"  
  
I hesitated. I hadn't been called Yam-kal in so many years…  
  
"I can see you're planning to do something very drastic - something to do with those Shadow Games of yours. I can figure that much out. But what is it you think you're going to do? I know you, and you're not all-powerful no matter what you do."  
  
I didn't like the scolding tone in his voice - Septhroith could be such a overprotective ass sometimes - and I turned to face him. That mention of 'death' and 'returning' he had overheard had completely cracked the protective shell he'd grown over his emotions.  
  
For the first time in almost ten years, his eyes were exactly the way I remembered them before he started training under the traitorous Henshin. He was really worried about me!  
  
"Seth…," I said as I averted my gaze, sensing him start at the old nickname I hadn't used since he first tried to kill me, "You're right. I'm not all-powerful. I've made too many mistakes to even consider claiming that title. And so I'm going to try and repent for what I've done."  
  
I felt the trickle of fear that oozed down his spine as if it were my own.  
  
"I might as well start big - the Shadow Realm has almost broken through to our dimension. Seth, you know just as well as I do that it must never be set loose upon the world."  
  
"What…what are you going to do?"  
  
"I'm going to seal it away. It, the Shadow Games, everything! And I'm going to use the Millennium Items to do it," I finished as I turned to the setup beside me.  
  
"But…but then you'll -"  
  
"I would appreciate it if you would find someone to replace me, Seth. Or you could rule Egypt yourself, I don't care."

I was about to begin when a voice rang out.  
  
"Well, you might care if I were the one taking over, am I right Pharaoh?"  
  
Bekareh sneered as he strode up like he owned the place.  
  
"And you've even put the Millennium Items on a table, just waiting to be taken away - by me."  
  
"I don't like you, Bekareh, but I might as well warn you - don't touch them and you may yet live a full life," I warned him, knowing he would ignore me anyway.  
  
I was right - he laughed.  
  
"Why, that's very considerate of you! Nevertheless, I'll take my chances. First, I'll reclaim what rightfully belongs to me," he said as he grabbed the Millennium Ring.  
  
He tried to pick it up but he couldn't; he tried to remove his hand but found that now it was stuck too.  
  
"Wrong choice," I muttered under my breath, then placed my hand on the Millennium Puzzle and began chanting.  
  
"_Power of Rah/Power of Isis/Power of Osiris/Power of Horus/Power of Anubis/Power of Thoth/Power of Seth/I name to thee/vessels of darkness/golden spirits of the desert…_"  
  
All the Millennium Items began glowing blindingly bright. Seth jumped out of the way and watched in what had to be terrified fascination.  
  
I found myself wishing I could see his expression, just because I'd never gotten that look from him before, as I continued the chant. The roof of the room - which had no ceiling - was a wall of blackness, the very sky of the Shadow Realm itself.  
  
"_To balance the Darkness/To balance the Light/I summon the Powers to this vessel!_"  
  
A massive blast of shadowy energy was dragged down and sucked into the first Item, the Millennium Eye. I had no control over where the magic went, except that the last one had to be the Puzzle. Otherwise the ritual would be forever half-finished and frankly, that was worse then the Shadow Realm.  
.

.  
I repeated the line again and again, and each time a huge blast of Shadow Game magic was ripped from the 'ceiling' and sucked into a Millennium Item. Each one then bore a hazy purple and black aura. First the Eye, then the Scales, the Ankt, and the Tauk changed.  
  
When the huge blast of light hit the Rod, however, it had a swirling purple and silver aura. I wasn't sure what could have caused that. And then it was the Ring's turn.  
  
I knew, when I first started preparing for this ritual, that if someone was touching an Item when a piece of the Shadow Games was being sucked in, that they too would get 'sucked' in.  
  
That was why I had planned for only Seth to watch. I knew he wasn't stupid enough to try and mess with the Items during a ritual, even if the Rod was his by right of his position.  
  
What I hadn't counted on was Bekareh finally entering my Father's tomb, discovering where the Items actually were, and getting over here in time to get caught in the middle of things. Well, it was his own fault for not listening, I decided.  
  
"_To balance the Darkness/To balance the Light/I summon the Powers to this vessel!_"  
  
As the next huge blast began heading for the Ring, Bekareh, deciding he was about to die and figuring he might as well finish me off mid-spell just because I was standing right in front of him, charged up his own magic energy and pointed it at me.  
  
"Try some of this, Pharaoh! _Dark Force Spell!_"  
.

.  
I didn't even have time to register the spell's approach before it blasted and burned it's way right though me. My body dropped onto the table, and I would certainly have fallen to the ground had not my hand still been firmly attached to the Puzzle.  
.

.  
I did manage to look up enough to see as the Shadow Game magic was sucked into the Ring without a hitch. Bekareh's look of triumph vanished as the Ring's light transformed into long grasping tentacles that held him fast and drained his soul into the Ring.  
  
Then his body was carelessly blown back, the unholy energies he had mastered in life already consuming it with their black flames. The Ring took on the same purple and silver aura the Rod now possessed.  
  
I pushed myself up - I had to finish this! The hardest part was still left. I tasted blood in my mouth, some of which dribbled down at the corners of my lips. I saw Seth coming closer, wanting to help, but I waved him off. The last thing I wanted to worry about was his safety.  
  
"_Powers of Light/Powers of Darkness -_" I had to pause as I coughed up some blood, " _- I give thee - sacrifice/Be - offered all - that I am/And call - thy Powers unto this vessel!_"  
  
'It's necessary…probably more then I deserve…' That was my last thought as my body failed and my world went dark for what seemed like the final time…

.  
.

* * *

(From Septhroith's POV)  
. 

.  
It was impossible! Right before my eyes, he forced the last incantation out and then - I watched in sheer horror as he died. His body was dead before it hit the ground, his own blood splattering all over him.  
  
I began to move forward, then stopped myself.  
  
This ritual of his was still working.  
  
The rest of the magic above us swirled around, making a tighter and tighter circle before blasting down and into his Millennium Puzzle. The string was completely burned away as the Puzzle absorbed it. It was still glowing as brightly as ever, unlike the others, and actually began levitating!  
.

.  
Not being familiar with the expected behaviors of Millennium Puzzles, I took a few steps back and watched as two more golden pieces appeared.  
  
A box appeared underneath the Puzzle, and it's lid appeared over It. Then the Puzzle's Sennen Eye pointed to Yamakali's dead body and It shot a beam of light into it. Something too bright to see clearly rose out of it and was drawn into the Puzzle.  
  
The Puzzle's aura took that purple-silver color for a full second, before it shattered.  
  
I jumped as the Puzzle broke into all It's separate pieces with a metallic bang. It was just so unexpected! All the pieces separated and then fell into the box. The lid landed right on top. In front of my very eyes, hieroglyphics burned themselves all over the box, and then there was a colossal burst of bright light, the magic faded and the Items were simply golden pieces lying on a table.  
  
I waited for a minute or two, just to be safe, and cautiously approached them. I had to shield my eyes when all seven Items caught and reflected sunlight straight at my face, as if they knew I was there - I paused.  
.

.  
Sunlight?  
.

.  
I looked up. The sky was clear! Bright blue, a few scattered clouds, but free of the dark forces that had tainted it for so long! I had never been happier to see Rah's heavenly barge as it went about its daytime travels.  
  
My happiness turned to ashes as I approached what was left of him. A dead body, a warm soulless corpse that still bled, that was all that was left. His abnormally pale skin was practically translucent in death. As I touched his body, I heard the priestess approaching me from behind. I wondered blankly what she thought of the scene before she spoke.  
  
"He will return," she said. "I trained under the same Master as he did, and I know one of Master's students could never break a promise. He will return."  
  
"And how long will that take," I asked bitterly.  
  
I was crying, I realized. I couldn't remember the last time I had cried.  
  
"Years? He was the only one that could solve that stupid puzzle of his, so how is he supposed to come back if it can't be solved?"  
  
"There will be someone to solve the Puzzle," the Priestess said matter-of-factly.  
  
"A chosen one will appear. It will be his destiny to help the Pharaoh's return and stop the evils of the Shadow Games once again. For you and I both know that one day they shall return."  
  
I wiped my tears away angrily and picked up Yamakali's still-cooling body.  
  
"I'll get started on this…he told you what to do with the Millennium Items?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Then I won't get in your way," I informed her before leaving the sunny room, heading forward into the bleak future that awaited me…

* * *

Chibi Red Eyes: Rawwwr rawr, rawr! Raaawwwrrr rawr raaawwrr raaawwrr rawr! (And that's all, folks! Thanks very much for living with TJ and her Yami's insanity!) 

TJ:(In far distance) WHEEEEE! So, which one of you pansies wants to go cliff diving with me? Guys? Guuuuuuys?! Helloooooo, where'd you guys go!?

Chibi Red Eyes:(sighs) Raaawwr, rawr rawr rawr. Rawwr! (Right, its really mostly TJ. Sayonara!)


End file.
